Dinner was over soon after Jaeger spoke and everyone went their separate ways. Lisette told him she needed two days to get everything organized, and he didn't like that, but he could afford two days. In fact, he spent those days in training, with his Armory partially filled, he needed to understand how to use it. He didn't spend all his time training, he gathered supplies and visited Ventress, but he wasn't meant to lounge around, so he spent most of it that way. It also served to keep him out of public view, as he felt eyes upon him as he moved about.

He was used to others looking at him, bounty hunters were tolerated but usually not welcome in Beserian settlements, but this time the gaze felt different. It was hard to say how, but he just knew it was different, it had a more intense feel to it, but lacked any kind of focused malicious intent. He had a good idea of who was watching him, having caught glimpses of black hair and blood-red leather slipping out of sight several times. He knew that going on a hunt would put an end to those watching eyes, one way or another. That was why he was sitting in front of Lisette at the earliest possible moment.

“Thanks for waiting, I can tell you are very keen to get to work. I had the bounties ready to go, I grabbed them all when you first left. The reason I needed those two days was to check with the guilds around Patterson to make sure that none of the guild leaders would come asking for you.” Lisette sat in her usual chair while Jaeger sat across from her. The usual hubbub and noise of the guild was quiet because of the time. “A few guilds were interested in acquiring your services, but none of them were demanding or immediate. I'll look into them while you're out hunting, speaking of.”

She flipped open a thick book on her desk, revealing it was a folder stuffed with bounty posters.

“We have a large variety here, even though we haven't had Bounty Hunters; other adventurers used to take bounties when monster hunting was slow. Which was good, but most adventurers make just as much money hunting monsters as humans without some of the moral implications, so with the recent monster wave they stopped taking them and the posters started piling up. If you don't want to go through each one, I'll ask a few questions and we can narrow it down. First, do you want groups or individuals?”

Jaeger understood that bounty hunting wasn't for everyone. Jobs had to be taken carefully, and without something like the Bounty Hunter's Creed, it was easy to let morality get in the way. Then again with an organization like the Adventurer’s Guild you probably didn’t need to worry about any morally dubious bounties. Jaeger made a mental note to inquire about the money that monster hunting brought in.

“Are the individuals running with groups like my last one or are they alone?”

“That last one was special, but in general it's a mix. I will say that each of them where they run with a group has bonuses offered for each member of the group brought in. With the exception that proof of the bounty is required, some people have tried to fool the system but it never works.”

Jaeger fell silent and thought about it. He'd been lucky with his first bounty, not every group would have a disgruntled member willing to turn on the others for coin. There was also the problem of logistics, how was he going to bring in a group?

“If I choose a group, how do I deliver it? Do I bring them back; will someone meet me there, or is the answer just some version of ‘magic’?”

Lisette smiled.

“It depends on the bounty. Some will require you to bring it in, some will have an observer present to verify it. Other times you might be asked to bring proof of death; a group might have a Killers Chain or a uniform, in which case you would bring that in. Don’t worry every group bounty has a clear ‘proof of bounty’ requirement and if it is the bodies we require that transport or magical verification is covered by the contractor not the hunter.”

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She shuffled through some of the bounties before pulling one out and handing it to Jaeger. Skimming it, he saw that it was for a rogue clan of night goblins. Lisette drew his attention to the bottom, where the proof of the bounty was. It asked for the ears of the night goblins, the rogue clan had a tattoo on them that signified their rogue status. Lisette took the poster back and continued speaking.

“Some are like that. The ears thing is not that uncommon, there are some who ask for index fingers, horns, claws, even hearts; some ask for specific heads, like what you did with Crusher. As far as I can tell, these are either the most identifiable parts of the bounty in question, or done as some sort of cultural reprisal.”

Jaeger nodded. Some of them were more exotic than he was used to, he'd certainly never taken someone's heart, but he understood retaliation. He'd been asked to bring in badges from corrupt sheriffs, signet rings from cruel nobles, and even a man's right foot; he'd never quite understood that last one, but at least the foot had been fake. He also understood the need to take certain things to save space. He'd only taken Crusher's head because the big orc's body was too big to carry.

“Fine, but what if the group bounty requires them to be alive?”

“That's easy, none of them do. We stopped doing live quests for groups. Some adventurers simply didn’t read far enough to see they were wanted alive, while others teams got too creative on bringing them back, after the Genki Telekinetic Manapult we had to stop it. If the bounty is for a group, it is a kill quest.” She said with a shrug. “That's not to say you can't be asked to take more than one bounty alive in some contracts, but those usually go to the Mercenary Guild or one of the temples. The Adventurers' Guild got a reputation for being too bloody, so we stopped getting bounties for live groups.”

Jaeger didn't have any easy group pacifying abilities anyway, and he would have to spend some time learning the poisons and herbs of this world before he could make anything. He also didn't want to have to buy a wagon, Ventress hated pulling them and she got jealous when he had another horse pull them. Best to stick to capturing individuals or pairs, at least for now.

Now he just had to decide what he wanted to do. Did he want to take an individual or a group? He thought about it and weighed his options. Having just set up the Armory, he needed to test it in combat, but was group combat better or single? A group was best, he decided. He'd already faced a single strong orc and a group of bandits, now it was time to find a middle ground.

“Give me a group, see if you have any that aren't too big but nothing to easy.”

Lisette's smile changed from friendly to a little bloodthirsty.

“As it turns out, I know just the group for you. There were a few in both the individual and group bounties that I had specifically picked out. Wait a second.”

She quickly counted fifty posters, picked them up and moved them aside. Halfway through the pile, she went through the previous pile and found what she was looking for.

“Here we go. A splinter group of the Clivetown Militia, well, their ex-militia now. They call themselves the Swords of Greenwood. Wanted for treason, rebellion, banditry, theft and murder. The pay is good, because their former militia, traitors always pay better.” She said this with a mean smile. “The mayor of Clivetown, a city to the east of us, offered the bounty. These men tried to stage a rebellion in Clivetown, but didn't realize that the local Assassins Guild had a mark on their leader. The Assassin waited for their leader to give the order for the rebellion and killed him. This threw the rebels into disarray, and they suffered casualties as they fled the city. Enough managed to escape and have been staging small attacks against anyone going to or from Clivetown ever since.”

She slammed her fist down on the table and gritted her teeth before speaking again.

“One of these attacks was on a team of adventurers from this branch. Emilia, Troy, Verd, Sivly, and Brad are their names. We're not sure what happened, all we know is that they were ambushed and Verd barely made it back here alive. His injuries were so bad that he wouldn't have made it if he weren't a three-striped tigerkin. So the guild is offering a bonus for bringing them back alive, or if they are dead, for bringing the heads of their killers.”

This caught Jaeger's attention. Why did he get this and not someone else?

“Why didn't another team go after them? Clearly, this guild has some heavy hitters.”

Lisette sighed, the anger leaking from her.

“It's only been a few weeks and all the high levels are about that far from town. Honestly, if you hadn't come back so soon, I would have sent a message to one of them. But if you take the job, I won't have to.”

She gave him a pleading look. Even if that didn't work on him, he wasn't heartless. Saving or avenging these hometown adventurers would be a good thing to do, and it would help his reputation in the guild.

“All right, Lisette, I'll take it. What's their last known location and what's the weather like?”